I have been doing Kung Fu for over a year now and whilst I enjoy it, it is not something I’m naturally good at. I have to work hard to pick up things that seem to come naturally to everyone else. Still, I’m progressing well and am currently working towards my third belt (Blue) as well as competing in local tournaments and preparing to compete in the Gay Games in Germany in August.

I had a tournament on yesterday in which I competed in traditional forms, weapons (pole) and non-contact point sparring. Whilst training on Saturday for the tournament, I landed on my knee on a carpet nail that wasn’t hammered in straight suffering a puncture wound and bruising. I got the ‘pleasure’ of spending two hours at the medical clinic to get a tetanus shot by an elderly doctor who didn’t even bother to look at my wound. Annoyed doesn’t even begin to cover how I felt when I left the clinic.

So, with a stiff and sore knee, I headed to the tournament on Sunday. Even though I’m a beginner, the weapons division combined all grades so competing against black belts I didn’t stand a chance. Still my SiFu (instructor) was happy with how I performed my routine and I got some much needed competition experience before the Gay Games.

In traditional forms, I came second but in a field of two people, the other being my more experienced teammate, that was really a trophy for turning up. Still, it was good competition experience.

Then after a three hour wait in a cold hall was the sparring event. Sparring is something I really, really struggle with as you have to react to what is happening which I don’t do well. Also, I seem to either attack or block, but I’m terrible at doing both which is essential. Therefore, unsurprisingly, I have never won a sparring match in competition. However, yesterday, my luck changed. I won my first match 7 -1 but I was up against a raw beginner. Still it was a nice confidence boost. I then won my second match 4 – 0, but scored a punch to my eye by my opponent who was getting a little frustrated that she couldn’t get a point on me. Unfortunately, I lost the ‘gold medal’ round 5-4 but still was ecstatic with my second place. Maybe I’m finally getting the hang of sparring.

Definitely feeling very sore and bruised today, but I was warned that there was always a chance that you can get injured doing martial arts, however, I wasn’t expecting two injuries in a single weekend.

You make it sound extremely elegant, how I wish I could live up to your image. :)
Actually, it’s more like the upcoming remake of The Karate Kid which doesn’t have anything to do with Karate as the kid is learning Kung Fu. I don’t want to see the film as the acting and storyline look dreadful, but I want to see the fighting and training scenes.